Forty years of the Nelson Market
Every Saturday morning, Nelson’s Montgomery Square is transformed from a car park into a bustling hive of activity. People purchase their weekly produce, foodies overload their senses, and craft stalls attract those perusing the aisles – and this year, th
When Nita Knight had the idea to create a market in Nelson in 1978, she had visions of ‘‘gazebos, flags and colour . . . a vibrant place where people could come’’.
Forty years on, they are still coming, searching for gifts and bargains, stocking up on fruit and veges or sweet and savoury treats, or just soaking up the atmosphere which has fulfilled Knight’s vibrant vision.
Every Saturday morning, hundreds of stall holders transform the central city Montgomery Square car park into a retail tent city where you can buy everything from jewellery and pickles to wood carvings and airplanes made out of beer cans.
Knight, who ran an employment agency in Auckland, drew inspiration from that city’s pioneering Cook St market, and thought Nelson’s climate made it a perfect fit for its own market.
Others were not so sure. When she set up at the original Millers Acre car park in Halifax Street, the city council gave her one month to ‘‘prove this thing was going to work’’.
Without revealing her trade secrets, she did ‘‘all sorts of things’’ to get stall holders along, and ended up with more than 60 for the market’s debut.
Knight demonstrated to the council that she could get her vision off the ground – but less than two years later she had to move to a new site, after objections from a neighbour, the TAB, for taking up parking spaces.
There was a silver lining, though. The council invited Knight to choose any car park in town for her new site, ‘‘because I’d become a bit established where I was’’.
‘‘So I said Montgomery Square, because I felt it was the most central and also probably the most protected from the wind and all of that.’’
From the beginning, she had ‘‘great aspirations’’ for the market.
‘‘I didn’t think it wouldn’t work; I didn’t think that for a minute. I think if you think like that, you’re done before you begin.’’
Not everyone backed her vision. Knight remembers a gentleman who said: ‘‘I don’t think this sort of thing is going to take off’’.
‘‘In the end, I had to bring it to his attention that he was down there every Saturday.’’
Decades on, there are no such doubts. Knight’s dedication to what has become a Nelson institution saw her make the New Year Honours list for 2018, becoming a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and the community.
In the early days of the market, stall holders were only permitted to sell secondhand items, produce and handcrafts. ‘‘We weren’t allowed to sell food in those days.’’
‘‘It’s a really special experience in Nelson, and everyone you take, they really do appreciate it.’’ Anne Rush, market-goer
These days, the Nelson Market is churning out a high calibre of food suppliers. It has been a launch pad for many successful local businesses, including Anathoth Jam, Proper Crisps, Hogarth’s Chocolates, Pete’s Lemonade and Pic’s Peanut Butter.
From its market beginnings, Pic’s is now a growing national and international brand; Hogarth’s boutique chocolate has won international awards for its products; and Proper Crisps had big corporate business the Griffins Food Company invest in it last year. It’s testament to how far a market stall can take you.
Keeping its position as the one and only market in Nelson hasn’t been without its challenges.
Knight said she used to struggle with keeping the stall holders in line, but there were times when it was called for.
Stall holders weren’t allotted sites in the beginning. ‘‘Initially, there wasn’t enough people.’’
‘‘The market started really early in the morning, and then we got earlier and earlier and earlier.’’
Vendors started setting up at 2am to secure their place. This was soon followed by customers turning up at the crack of dawn.
Many stall holders were sleeping in their vans on Friday night to secure their spot.
‘‘It was getting ridiculous,’’ Knight recalls. ‘‘I had to stop everything and structure things.’’
Former stall holder for 20 years, Heather Tonk, can vouch for the early starts.
‘‘People were lining up at 2am
. . . all lining up to get the same spot. Getting the one where customers knew where we were.’’
Tonk started out selling plants before buying a food cart to sell chips and hot dogs.
She remembers one man who would travel to the market from Wellington every month. ‘‘He came specifically to get a hot dog. He said they were the best hot dogs in New Zealand.’’
And it wasn’t just the hot dog lover dropping in from the capital. ‘‘A lot of customers came down from Wellington . . . to come down to the Nelson Market. They made it part of their weekend.’’
Tonk says that eventually, Nelson retailers capitalised on the crowds that were in town for the market. She believes Nelson was one of the first places in the country to have retailers open their doors on Saturdays.
‘‘Because the market was so busy, retailers got together and asked, ‘Why aren’t we open on Saturday morning if the market brings in so many people?’. It actually created Saturday morning shopping.’’
The market has had its share of characters, famous visitors and stall regulars.
Knight recalls one young man in the ‘‘old days’’ who set up a stall ‘‘with a road cone on his head’’ and a piece of paper stating: ‘‘Free advice.’’
‘‘He was sitting there, and it just looked so ludicrous.’’
Wood turner and carver Kemp Lenihan, from Glenwood Craft, is a market veteran. He’s seen stall holders come and go since its inception at Millers Acre.
Like many market vendors, his weekly stall – set up at 6am and packed up at 1pm – is his livelihood.
‘‘That market is the reason many, many people have made a living out of art.’’
And the market reaches customers from all over the world, without a mouse or keyboard being touched.
‘‘Through the summer, I would say 70 per cent of my sales would be to the US and UK,’’ Lenihan says.
‘‘It’s iconic, and a huge go-to place for tourists. It’s giving me access to a worldwide base of people. People can come to that market and pick something up and look at it – you can’t do that on the internet.’’
Lenihan hasn’t just made wooden crafts during his years at the market – he’s also built memories.
‘‘I think my fondest memories have been the connections with wonderful artists over the time that have come and gone – absolutely brilliant people.’’
He remembers a Dutch stall holder who was ‘‘always joking’’.
‘‘He was so funny and full of life – then he got cancer. He stayed there almost to the end.’’
On the day of his funeral, he was driven through the market in his coffin in the back of a Lada before the service. ‘‘We had a bit of a wake for him.
‘‘They’re special moments. You just meet some absolute characters – he was definitely one really loveable guy.’’
One woman who was a prominent personality in the aisles was Nelson’s Pearly Queen, Shirley Miles. She was at the market most weekends from Christmas 2002, until she passed away from nonHodgkin lymphoma in March.
Miles was recognisable thanks to a hat and a pearly suit that weighed 3kg and represented her London heritage. She shook a bucket for the Nelson Tasman Hospice, raising more than $160,000 over the years.
Knight says the market was the only one in New Zealand that had a genuine Pearly Queen. ‘‘Your ancestors had to have lived in London for at least 100 years.
‘‘She was just such an amazing woman. She collected all that money . . . she’s done that for this community, not for remuneration for herself, but she’s done that for us.’’
Other market visitors with London heritage who sparked a lot of interest in 2015 were Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Knife maker Ross Johnston, who had a stall at the market for 34 years, remembers the royal stopover. He says the town ‘‘ripped in’’ and pushed the couple out of the market.
‘‘The people from outside the market just rushed in. They were pushing at him and shoving him.
‘‘I think the police just said, ‘Out of here, this feels too dangerous’.’’
Johnston says he has seen a lot of famous faces at the market, including politicians and even American TV personality Judith Sheindlin, better known as Judge Judy.
But amongst the celebrities and well-known figures who stroll around the stalls, there are the locals who frequent the market each weekend.
Anne Rush is a community market-goer who visits almost every Saturday. She joins her sisters there and gets her produce for the week.
‘‘It’s also a social experience – you can meet people down there, friends, take your visitors.
‘‘It’s a really special experience in Nelson, and everyone you take, they really do appreciate it. Even international visitors, they seem to think it stacks up, as good as anywhere, really.’’
She says the market reflects what Nelson has to offer.
‘‘We do live in a food bowl, that’s definitely demonstrated. We have lots of artisans and crafts people, and lots of personalities.’’
Amongst the personalities sits Knight, the market matriarch. Many locals can’t praise her enough for the tireless work and vibrant energy she puts into the weekly event.
And if the flow of people through her market office on a Saturday is anything to go by, she’s one very popular woman.
But there are many hands making light work, including staff member Lex Read, who does ‘‘anything that needs doing’’; Knight’s sister Gail Michaels, who helps with administration; and her son Jason Knight, who assists with the Saturday market and heads Monty’s Sunday Market.
It’s no mean feat organising hundreds of stalls, and it’s no easy task to be granted a site.
‘‘It’s quite a thing to be part of the Nelson Market, because there’s a standard you have to meet.’’
The stalls and their wares are about ‘‘quality, not quantity’’, Knight says.
‘‘The market is going so well and the people are happy. It’s become a family affair, in terms of my own family and market family.
‘‘It kind of reaches out into the community spirit.’’